¡°1Flag football is exciting.¡± ¡°It's such a fun sport.¡± ¡°Flag football is a community.¡±
CNN Correspondent: Flag football is all those things and a 2booming business. How have you seen the sport grow and 3evolve since you first started.
Izell Reese, NFL Flag Executive Director: I started in 2018, and the sport has 4skyrocketed. When I started with NFL Flag along, which is 5rec league players, 6roughly about 200,000 participating, it has 7ballooned to 800,000 participating.
Kevin Fraser, Pope High School Girls Flag Football Head Coach: People are starting to see that it's a big deal and colleges are picking it up more and more.
Tatiana Dos Santos, Ottawa University Junior: I came from a small town in Panama, in the west side of Panama, all the way to be in Kansas, winning national championships and just being able to 8get a scholarship is such a proud moment, of course, for me.
CNN Correspondent: Flag football is the second fastest growing team sport for kids ages 6 to 17, seeing a 26% increase between 2019 and 2023, 9according to the 10Sports and Fitness Industry Association(SFIA). Now, the group also sees 11significant growth in footballs and 12protective gear, such as mouth guards, guardian caps, glasses, with a nearly 30% increase in all 13football equipment.
Montez Swinney, Dunwoody High School Girls Flag Football Head Coach: You see all the Instagram ads and you see all the people just 14promoting the game in general.
Lamont Jones, Rockford Park District Youth Sports Manager: We gain more and more sponsorships with our local flag football program. We have a lot of local business owners that are coming out now. They want to 15get involved with this fast-growing sport.
Izell Reese: You start thinking about all those jerseys, all those flag belts, all those footballs, all those participants, all those tournaments and events. It's now just 16coupled into that 17multi-billion-dollar industry of youth sports. And flag is a skyrocket for that.
